Ankara

27/08/25

Up early to drop Corrie at the Perfendy Otel. The mechanic where Jez is going for work had arranged it for us. No cages or kennels. A yard for daytime and a bedroom at night. Corrie trembled when we arrived. She thought she was at the vet. Regular updates from the kennel. It took her a few days to settle. Her first time in kennels.

Then a drive across Ankara to the motorhome repair shop. A straight wide and free flowing road. Rush hour didn’t seem to exist.

We spent a couple of hours going through the work using google translate. The head honcho was checking on the phone what could be out sourced. One of the mechanics kindly dropped us to our Ankara hotel. Dropping bags, we checked out the train station for tomorrow. A cheap taxi to near the Anatolian Museum of Ancient Civilisations for lunch. And then into the museum. Both feeling tired, we pretty much scooted through. Focussed on the Hittites treasures that had been found at the sites we have visited.

Istanbul

28/08/25

0840 for the high speed train to Istanbul. Airport style passport checks. Allocated seats. Left and arrived on time to the minute. Only annoyance was no usb charging points, but we had a battery pack. Trolley and buffet car.

Istanbul was busy and a sensory overload. We were assisted by 2 locals to buy transport cards and then load money onto them. Metro to the old part of Europe Istanbul.
Straight to a restaurant where we eventually managed to check in for our flights tomorrow. And to book a luggage storage in a nearby hotel.

Tbh we were not loving Istanbul. Too crowded. Too touristy. Reminded us of Marrakesh.
We did a gps.mycity introduction walk which took us through the spice bazaar. Seething mass of humanity. J had to hold onto me so we didn’t get separated. Hated it.

The main architectural sites were more open and calmer. We didn’t go into any as a) we were shattered and b) we knew it is a long way out to our near airport hotel.

In fact, we hadn’t realised just how difficult to get to our hotel. The super helpful chap in the hotel, where we had left our luggage, checked several routes and recommended 2 buses. He warned us that they would be busy and slow as 6 pm by now. They surely were. The whole journey from arriving at the bus station (on foot through the bloody spice market again) to the hotel was 3 hours. But at 40 lira each per trip, the total cost was about £3 for both of us. Driving direct 37km, but of course the bus wasn’t direct.

We’d gone past hungry so demolished a bottle of red in our room and flaked out.